History of the Kewanee Sports League

Founding

KSL was founded in 2002 by Andrew Hughes. Andrew was interested in doing Fantasy Sports for a few years and was able create a small league that year. The First Five were Andrew, Kevin Smith, Brian Schoutteet, Lance Frail and Shawn Werderman. The first year saw a 4 team playoff race and had bye weeks. Kevin finished 1st overall but Brian was able to beat him in the championship match to capture the first ever KSL Championship.

2003 saw the introduction of Aaron Hughes and Mike Smith. Shawn didn't rejoin the league and KSL moved to a points system instead of head to head. Lance ended up winning that year.

In 2004 KSL added David Pate and Charlie Harker to the league. KSL 04 stayed with the points system for one more year. Dave ended up winning it all his first year in the league.

Head to Head

In 2005 Blake Clayton, Russ Hughes and Ryan McCarty joined the league. Meanwhile Lance and Charlie left completely and Mike took a year off. KSL went back to the head to head style of matches which became the standard system used to this day. Dave Pate finished the year 12-2, demolishing his opponents. However, he was knocked out the first round in the playoffs by Aaron. Russ ended up winning that year by defeating Blake in the Championship match. KSL Introduced Pickems to the league and Kevin Smith won the initial year.

2006 saw the introduction of Doug Hahn and reintroduction of Mike. Russ and Par Chareer did not rejoin KSL. Brian ended up finishing 12-2 having lost his only 2 games to Mike who finished 7th overall. Brian ended up losing in the first round. Meanwhile Aaron beat Doug to become the 2006 KSL Champion. In the playoffs, Doug had scored the second lowest each week only to play the person who scored the lowest.

In 2007 KSL expanded to 12 teams by adding Ty Palmer, Joe Snider, Jon Oberg and Prime Time. Expanding the league to 12 people meant 4 wouldn't make the playoffs and for the first time ever, there was a scramble to get in. The season was shortened from 14 games, down to 13. Brian, Aaron and Doug finished with the best records of 9-4 but it didn't help them in the playoffs. Only Aaron made it past the first but he lost to Dave. Mike finished the season in 8th place by winning his last game and beat everyone else in the playoffs becoming the 2007 KSL Champion.

Move to MFL

In 2008 we moved to My Fantasy League because it allowed for my customization and more options. 2008 was also the year we added 5 more teams to the league: Andy McConnell, Travis Peterson, Ryan Skender, Ty Boardman and Jon Occhi. Prime Time did not rejoin us that year. We also split the league into two conferences which could house the same players. This meant two teams could have a very similar team and it meant we would have to have two separate drafts. We also shortened the regular season to 12 games. 2008 was also the first year that head to head matchups and divisional records were very important. Dave ended up finishing above Brian because of a tie breaker. This was the first year we had first round byes and reseeding in the same way the NFL does their playoff system. Between the 4 divisions, Andrew, Dave, Doug and Blake won their divisions and therefore had a round 1 bye. All the teams lost their next game except Andrew who made it to the championship but lost to Ryan who had won his last 8 straight games. Andrew had finished with the best overall record but failed to capture the KSL Championship. 2008 also saw the introduction of the Survival League. Doug Hahn was the first ever winner of that league.

In 2009 KSL stayed in the MFL system because we had 16 teams. Andy McConnell was out and Dave Nanninga was in. This caused a shift in the divisions moving Oberg to Hula Burger and Nanninga to PBnJ. This year saw the rise of Ty Palmer who went 11-0 until he played the last game of the regular season against Ty Boardman and lost. That was the last game he lost all year. for the first time in KSL history, the top two teams faced each other in the final game. Travis had the second best overall record and Palmer had the best. Palmer was victorious that game and went on to become the 2009 KSL Champion.

Move back to Yahoo

2010 saw a return to form from the last two years. KSL moved back to Yahoo and dropped two teams. Ryan and Jon Occhi were the two casualties. There were only two separate divisions which made drafting very difficult. Ty Boardman emerged as the team to beat in one division and Mike was the top dog in the other. Mike and Ty ended up meeting each other in the championship match which saw Mike become the first ever repeat champion in KSL. On the other side of things, Travis and Blake were at the bottom of the league with 1 and 2 wins respectively. Travis' only win came against Blake's team.

For 2011 KSL lost two more players to make it an even 12. Blake and Travis had parted ways which led to the introduction of a 3 division KSL. Joe ended the season with the best overall record at 10-3 but Aaron ended up winning the championship.

In 2012 we saw Mike depart and Jon Occhi come in to take his place. Unfortunately, it didn't last long and Occhi quit half way through the season. KSL stayed with the 3 divisions of 4 teams each and we saw some bitter rivalry games this year. The battle to get into the playoffs came down to the wire but when it was all said and done, the top teams were able to make that final playoff push to make it in. After the first two rounds of the playoffs, Dave Pate and Ty Palmer made it to the finals. Dave Pate was able to finally get revenge on Palmer after losing both divisional games to him earlier this season, to become a two time KSL Champion.

2013 saw the exit of Jon Occhi and the arrival of Erik VanHyfte. Erik came in and took over his division immediately. We also saw Doug take off as the top seed and make his way to the playoffs to take on Kevin Smith. Kevin was able to finally pull off an upset and win his first every Championship in KSL.

In 2014 we continued with the same owners as before and we lowered points per touch for RBs and QBs. We also instituted a rolling waiver priority list. Both those changes proved to be very popular among the KSL owners. Dave Pate, Kevin Smith and Brian Schoutteet won their divisions but Dave Nanninga was the one who won it all that year and became a KSL Champion.

2015 saw the rise of defending champion Dave Nanninga who went on to go 12-1 that season; a KSL record. Dave's only loss came at the hands of Ty Boardman. Divisional winners included Dave Nanninga, Doug Hahn and Aaron Hughes. The eventual champion for 2015 was Doug Hahn. 2015 saw minor changes to KSL overall.

In 2016 Ty Palmer became the team to beat by winning 11 games. Kevin made his way back up the leader board by winning 10. Ty, Kevin and Doug won their divisions but it was the #8 seed Jon Oberg who rose up and defeated Ty Palmer, Kevin Smith and Andy Hughes to win his first championship in KSL. He is also one of the only players to become Champion but never have been a Divisional Champion.

In 2017 KSL kept the teams the same as the previous years but the divisions were shaken up. Eventually, Kevin, Brian and Aaron won their divisions and went on to the playoffs.